Want to Know: Your Daily Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

13th of February, 2025

"It's gonna be like a wormhole..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($355.94, +5.77%):

- According to Tesla's Max de Zegher (@MdeZegher), Tesla is currently trialing new anti-theft measures on their Supercharger cables in Seattle. they include the installation of DyeDefender devices that release blue-staining dye upon cutting, and engraving "Property of Tesla" on the cables from their Buffalo, New York factory. Recycling companies are instructed not to accept the engraved cables and to notify Tesla if they do. H/T Drive Tesla Canada (@DriveTeslaca).

- Tesla is out in full force at the Canadian International Auto Show in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The new Model Y sits alongside the rest of the S3XY lineup along with Cybertruck and Cybercab. The show starts tomorrow and ends on the 23rd.

- The U.S. Department of State Planning listed Tesla as the recipient of a $400 million 5 year contract for armored vehicles in the procurement forecast. The contract was added on December 13th of 2024 under the Biden administration, and is slated to begin the 30th of September, 2025. Within 4 hours of news getting out, the name Tesla was removed, but the contract is still there.

Elon commented on this news by saying, "I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least." I replied to jokingly, "Maybe Biden had a sweet spot for you after all... ... ... 🤷‍♂️" Elon said, "Unlikely 😂"

- Tesla has secured a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with Invenergy's 300-megawatt solar Delilah I Energy Center located 140 miles northeast of Dallas, Texas. Tesla will likely use this renewable energy to support its operations via the Tesla Electric Texas program and help reduce the carbon footprint from Giga Texas.

- Per Tesla AI's Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa), "Integration of AI-Agentic workflow across business processes and customer support looks promising. Customers will soon benefit from these enhancements."

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Fremont Factory: MetGod, 12th of February, '25. New Model Ys were spotted confirming production at every Tesla factory.

■ SPACEX:

- Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr. signed an order finding satisfactory proof in support of the statutory requirements being met for petition for incorporation of Starbase. On the 3rdof May a final vote will be held to determine if Starbase will become an official city in the state of Texas.

- SAMES, Inc. posted the official municipal boundary map for Starbase, Texas. They are a Civil Engineering Surveying company out of McAllen, Texas, that provided the boundary data and foundational surveying that define the boundaries for the future incorporated city.

- With a successful long duration Static Fire Test, Starship 34 rolled back to Mega Bay 2. Pre-flight checks will begin ahead of flight 8.

- Both Chopstick Arm Actuators have now been delivered and installed on Tower 2 at Starbase. Video by NSF (@NASASpaceflight).

- The nose cone and payload section of Starship 36 was rolled out of the Starfactory and into Mega Bay 2 yesterday evening. Pic from @LabPadre.

- Starship 37 tile work inside the Starfactory. Pic by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages). Subscribe to Carlos!

- "Rest in Pieces Starship 32..." also by Carlos.

Countdown to 180 (19 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

• Launch 21! Saturday, 15th of February, at 12:00 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-8 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 22! Monday, 17th of February, at 5:18 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 NROL-57 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This is the eighth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.

• Launch 23! Tuesday, 18th of February, at 7:17 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-12 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 24! Wednesday, 26th of February, at 7:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 & Lunar Trailblazer will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.

• Launch 25! Thursday, 27th of February, at 7:10 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 SPHEREx & PUNCH will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).

• SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission that will survey the sky in near-infrared light to explore the origins of the universe and the evolution of galaxies, while also searching for water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries and planet-forming disks around stars. It aims to collect data on over 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars within our Milky Way, providing insights into the conditions necessary for life.

• NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) consists of four suitcase-sized satellites, which will focus on the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) and how it generates the solar wind. The spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections – large eruptions of solar material that can drive large space weather events near Earth – to better understand their evolution and develop new techniques for predicting such eruptions.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- At the World Government Summit, Elon helped announce that the Boring Company in partnership with the UAE will build the Dubai LOOP! This loop will cover Dubai's most densely populated areas allowing users to go from point to point avoiding traffic on the surface. Per Elon, "It's gonna be like a wormhole. You just wormhole form one part of the city, BOOM, and you're at another spot in the city."

- The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA and John Hering, Lead Investor and Senior Advisor to The Boring Company. Per the Boring Company, "In partnership with the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai (@rta_dubai), TBC is excited to announce Dubai Loop. We would like to thank The Crown Prince of Dubai Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) and the Chairman of the RTA." Pic shows the official signing of the partnership.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- More Starlink Gateway terminals were spotted at Tesla's Fremont Factory. Ground work on the Gateway between the test track is still ongoing.

- In 2024, BloomBox Design Labs received the Diana Award, a global humanitarian award named after the late Princess Diana, for their work in girls' education. Based in Southern Africa, they've installed 4 labs supporting over 10,000 students in urban, rural, and refugee camp. They're an official partner with Malawi's government with plans to expand. In 2025, they'll launch SuperBloom, a video app connecting students globally via Starlink.

- Green Grid Inc's Starlink connected Mobile AI Monitoring Unit. This is a AI fire detection transportable platform. It serves as a monitoring station that enables real-time wildfire detection. It has real-time controlled burn monitoring, early warning alert system for high-risk areas, site assessment for permanent sensor placement, fuel and vegetation management tracking, early ignition detection with automated notifications, and 24/7 monitoring with customizable alert protocols.

■ X:

- X's Joêlle (@YazbeckJoelle) gave an oversight into how content creators can build a sustainable livelihood on X. "A true honor to be part of the World Gov Summit and deeply connect with a wonderful crowd at the Creators HQ stage."

- Apple has fully resumed advertising on X.

- X is financially supporting Lisa Shalet in her claim against Pearson, a multinational publishing and education company, for discrimination and unfair dismissal after she was forced to resign due to her personal posts on X expressing support for Israel, which Pearson deemed as gross misconduct. Shalet, a 7-year employee, is backed by the Free Speech Union and Doyle Clayton Solicitors to vindicate her free speech rights, with UK law protecting philosophical beliefs in employment as per the Grainger case.

- X's Cris Nulli (@crisnulli) posted this pic of Luxury Innovation Breakfast where X's Florence Best (@BabyModeuse) shared insights and X's vision with Grok, Nvidia, and leading brands in the Fashion & Luxury Industry.

- Per X's Shayma (@itsshaymat), "Today we are spreading the love around the office with our Love Letter Box."

■ xAI:

- Elon confirmed Grok 3 is coming in 2 weeks and will be a powerful reasoning model. It has trained on the most amount of compute and synthetic data. He expects it to outperforms every model. Per Elon, "Grok 3 is scary smart... Grok 3 should be released in a week or two. We want to take our time with the final polish. Hopefully this is the last time that any AI is better than Grok."

■ DOGE:

- The official DOGE.gov website is now active. it includes daily updates on efficiency and waste reduction and information on rules.

- Per Elon on the Iron Mountain Mine used for paper filing federal employee retirements, "The current paper-down-a-mineshaft retirement system will be digital within a month or so."

- DOGE found that the Department of Defense provided Reuters with $9 million between 2018 and 2022 for a program named "ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LSD)." DARPA claims this was for cyber defense against social engineering attacks. Per Elon, "Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”. That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam. Just wow."

- DOGE successfully terminated 58 contracts with a total savings of over $150 million. Categories include; Media, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and Consulting services. One was for $405,000 at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a contract related to "resilience, energy, and sustainability management program support services". Another was for $4 million at the Department of Transportation (DoT) for "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) program and project management support services".

- Yesterday, the EPA under Administrator Lee Zeldin terminated three DEI contracts, saving $45 million. Specific details about these contracts are not provided yet. Today, the EPA canceled a $50 million environmental justice grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, which advocates for climate justice intertwined with social justice issues like the Free Palestine movement. This decision is part of a larger initiative to review and reclaim approximately $20 billion in climate funds allocated by the Biden administration, with significant portions going to entities like the Climate United Fund.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Per Elon's lawyer on canceling the bid for OpenAI, "If OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid."

- Elon and his family met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) in Washington DC today. The meeting took place during Modi's visit to see President Donald Trump on the India-USA Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. No news if there were discussions on Starlink or Tesla's potential entry into the Indian market, but I would assume it came up.

Per Modi, "Had a very good meeting with Elon. We discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation. I talked about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.’"

Elon gifted Modi part of a heat shield tile from Starship 30 of Test Flight 5.

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Have a great day!

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

Fremont Factory: MetGod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNYZhkpgnG0

Tesla:

• https://www.state.gov/procurement-forecast?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The Boring Company:

• https://www.boringcompany.com/dubai

Elon Quote is from the announcement of the Dubai LOOP. Video in The Boring Company section.